MARGARET KNIGHT

508-627-8894

(margaret02539@yahoo.com)

Last weekend my family went to Virginia where spring is some weeks ahead of here. It was a reminder of how wonderfully soft and warm the air will feel — at some point in the future.

The Virginia woods were highlighted by the amazing purple-pink flowers of the Eastern redbud trees and the blooming dogwoods. The redbuds lit up the woods the way that our shad bushes will in a few weeks.

It’s nice to see the natural habitat of plants that we buy at garden stores, to see where they grow in the wild. I didn’t know we had redbud trees on the Vineyard, but Allouise Morgan told me there is one in front of the police station, which I’ll be looking out for now.

When they grow in Virginia yards, dogwoods and redbuds are probably called native species, as the shad and rosa rugosa — which grow on the Island naturally — are called when they’re planted in someone’s yard here on the Island.

The term “native species” seems to be used to refer to plants that grow somewhere naturally but have been moved and purposefully put to grow somewhere they didn’t choose, kind of the way that Native Americans were sent to live on reservations. The plants may take root and grow well, or they may find the new location — chosen by someone else — does not suit. Rosa rugosa never seems to grow as well in a yard as on a beach dune. 

I have a shad growing in my front yard, but I didn’t plant it — it was growing there when I started building my house. I just didn’t cut it down. I wonder if it would be called a native species — or would it have to be disfranchised and replanted before it earned that title?

Dogwoods grow in the woods here, but maybe more as escapees from someone’s yard rather than having spread here from further south where the latitude suits them more. There is a little grove of them in the woods on the side of a glacial pothole near my house. They’ve produced fewer and fewer blossoms over the years as they’ve become more buried in the shade of the surrounding beech woods. Last spring I discovered a dogwood at the edge of a path I often follow, not too far from the grove. I clipped back the bittersweet vines climbing it and the encroaching hazelnut bushes, and I’m looking forward to seeing if it has more blossoms this year.

At the selectmen’s meeting on Monday, Peter Wells delineated the reasons he is asking for an increase in Chappy ferry rates. People spoke for and against the increase, and packets of the e-mails sent to the selectmen were available for people to take. The selectmen decided to continue the hearing to the next available date, which is May 5 at 4 p.m. But because town counsel Ron Rappaport can’t be present then, they may change the date — for which they would need to post a hearing notice in the paper — or just continue it to another meeting. So, you can still send comments to the selectmen at e-select@vineyard.net.

When Paddy Moore of West Tisbury sent an e-mail asking for help to spread the word that the charter commission had to change its location for their public meeting on Wednesday, April 23 at 7 p.m. — from the Chilmark Community Center to the Chilmark Public Library Meeting Room — I wasn’t sure what the charter commission was. I knew I’d seen articles about it in the paper but some headlines make my eyes glaze over.

Maybe it was the stimulus of our recent elections that made me want to know more about the commission’s workings. When I asked her, she explained that the charter commission is a group elected and appointed in November 2006 to review the current Dukes County charter, its services and mode of operation.

After more than a year’s work, they’ll finish in May and will put their recommendations before the voters on the ballot in November. They’ve reviewed all the county services, including the sheriff, registry of deeds and the courthouse; all the separate programs such as county engineer, rat control, health care access program, county emergency services, and county beaches, and looked at other forms of county government.

They’re asking people to provide feedback on the tentative decisions they’ve made regarding the form of government, the number of commissioners, how frequently they’re elected and whether they’re elected Islandwide or by district; and ideas for what would make the county more efficient or effective. The commission is also hosting a meeting at the Oak Bluffs Senior Center on Thursday, April 24 at 5 p.m. Both meetings are open to anyone.

Thanks to the Chappaquiddickers who exercised their democratic rights last week by voting and attending town meeting, and especially those who were willing to run for office. Two of the three Chappaquiddickers running for elected positions did not win, but Pat Rose was elected as library trustee. Bob Fynbo, who didn’t win the selectmen’s race, will continue to keep people informed about the issues through his Web site, townofedgartown.org, as he plans to keep attending meetings. Roger Becker will step down as planning board chairman. Many thanks to Roger for the time and expertise he has given us over the past five years.